Cal ISO: Summer's Looking Good.

Cal ISO announced that, thanks to new power plants and energy conservation measures, California will have about 930 MW more than last year, so we should be ok this summer. The ISO is predicting only a 2.9% chance of a power emergency.

As reported in the San Francisco Chronicle:

"Southern California will have less spare power than Northern California, the ISO predicted. But even in the south, grid managers expect a comfortable margin between the amount of electricity used and the maximum available.

The state likes to maintain margins of 15 to 17 percent. If Southern California experiences typical weather in July and August, the margin will be about 21.7 percent. In particularly hot weather, the margin will drop to roughly 15 percent.

Northern California should have 26 percent margins in normal weather and 18 percent in a hotter-than-average summer."

Of course, last summer grid managers blew thier forecasts by 3.2% when a crazy heat wave hit the central valley creating record demand (50,200 MW+) and who's to say that won't happen again?

Power grid OK for this summer [San Francisco Chronicle]